Michael Baum

An accomplished entrepreneur and executive, Michael Baum has led several companies to success over the course of his nearly three-decade career. After graduating from Drexel University, where he studied computer science, Michael Baum assisted in founding the online financial services startup Reality Online and served as Vice President of Engineering before Thomson Reuters acquired the company in 1987. In the same year, Michael Baum matriculated at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on marketing and finance before completing his MBA and starting his second company. In his capacity as founding CEO of Pensoft, Michael Baum positioned the firm for acquisition by AT&T within three years of its inception.

After his early success, Michael Baum joined Advent International Corporation, a global private equity firm based in Boston. During the four years he spent as Principal in the company, Michael Baum oversaw corporate venture capital funds for clients such as Nippon Steel Corporation and Toshiba America, Inc. In 1996, Michael Baum left Advent International Corporation to pursue opportunities in Silicon Valley, lending his abilities to several companies that were later acquired by some of the most prominent firms in the industry. In addition to founding 280, dotBank, and Collation Inc., later acquired by InfoSeek, Yahoo! Inc., and IBM Corporation, respectively, Michael Baum served as Vice President of e-Commerce at Infoseek and Vice President of e-Commerce Services at Yahoo! Inc. In 2001, Michael Baum became Venture Partner at Prism Venture Management, LLC, where he leveraged his deep knowledge of the information technology sector to manage investment opportunities in emerging companies.

In 2003, Michael Baum co-founded Splunk Inc., an infrastructure software company that revolutionized IT management and business analytics. As CEO and Chief Business Development Officer, Michael Baum established Splunk as a leader in the field before leaving in 2009 to become an advisor to early-stage technology companies. He is currently based in California.